Galway Bay fm newsroom - The Minister for Local Government has committed to reviewing the funding model for Galway County Council.
That's according to Galway East TD Ciaran Cannon, who says it's a positive step in the long-running debate on the budgetary challenges faced by the local authority.
It comes ahead of a crunch-meeting of the council on Monday to vote on an overall budget for next year amid claims the county cannot continue to function under the current situation.
It's long been argued that Galway is drastically under-funded per capita compared to counties of a similar size, such as Mayo, Cork or Donegal.
Deputy Cannon is confident the review promised by Minister Peter Burke will be completed and published by the end of March.
Deputy Cannon claims in the meantime, Minister Burke has also agreed to provide an extra half million euro towards this years budget.
The additional money comes ahead of a budget meeting of Galway County Council on Monday.
All 5 municipal districts in Galway have already voted against their proposed local budgets - which leaves just the overall local authority budget to be decided.
If it's rejected in the same fashion, the council could be dissolved and the Government would have to intervene to take over the function of the councillors.
Councillors are usually of the mindset that every additional cent is badly needed and welcomed at the cash strapped local authority.
However there may be a lukewarm reception to an additional €600 thousand, given the shortfall has frequently been measured as at least several million every year.
All eyes are now on Monday - to see if councillors take the unprecedented step of potentially voting themselves out of a job in the long-running quest to secure additional funding.
